2-DOF Contactless Distributed Manipulation Using Superposition of Induced Air Flows.

International audienceMany industries require contactless transport and positioning of delicate or clean objects such as silicon wafers, glass sheets, solar cell or flat foodstuffs. The authors have presented a new form of contactless distributed manipulation using induced air flow. Previous works concerned the evaluation of the maximal velocity of transported objects and one degreeof- freedom position control of objects. This paper introduces an analytic model of the velocity field of the induced air flow according to the spatial configuration of vertical air jets. Then two degrees-of-freedom position control is investigated by exploiting the linearity property of the model. Finally the model is validated under closed-loop control and the performances of the position control are evaluated

Robust control of a planar manipulator for flexible and contactless handling

International audienceMany industries require non-contact and flexible manipulation systems, such as magnetic or pneumatic devices. In this paper, we describe a one-degree-of-freedom position control of an induced-air-flow surface. This device allows to convey objects on an air cushion using an original aerodynamic traction principle. A model of the system is established and the parameters are identified experimentally. A H1 robust controller is designed and implemented on the device in order to control the object position. Experiments with objects of various dimensions and materials are conducted and showed the robustness capabilities of the controller

A magnetometer based payload for a PTOL UAV with application in geophysical surveys

Includes bibliographical references.Applying the principles of physics to studying the Earth has given rise to the field of geophysics, which has been recognised as a separate discipline since the 19th century. The practical implementation of this field has led to a separate branch, aptly named exploration geophysics. Exploration geophysics aims to measure various naturally occurring phenomena associated with the Earth in order to make predictions about what might lie beneath the Earth’s surface. One of the fundamental phenomena associated with the Earth is the magnetic field or geomagnetic field. By localising magnetic anomalies within the geomagnetic field one can make predictions or inferences about the localised geophysical makeup and potential ore bodies, hydrocarbon deposits or archaeological artefacts that might exist below the surface. The fundamental sensor used to perform these surveys is the magnetometer. The concept of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been around since 1915, with the first manufactured UAV appearing in 1916. Subsequent to the realisation of the UAV in the 1950s by Ryan Aeronautical for military reconnaissance, the idea of using UAV platforms to perform dull, dirty and dangerous functions has become common-place in the military environment. The first practical use of a UAV came in the 1991 Gulf War. The subsequent appearance of UAVs in the civilian realm can largely be attributed to the advent of low cost, high power density, lithium based batteries in the 1990s and the growth of the radio controlled (RC) hobbyist market

Various Applications of Methods and Elements of Adaptive Optics

This volume is focused on a wide range of topics, including adaptive optic components and tools, wavefront sensing, different control algorithms, astronomy, and propagation through turbulent and turbid media

Sliding Mode Control

The main objective of this monograph is to present a broad range of well worked out, recent application studies as well as theoretical contributions in the field of sliding mode control system analysis and design. The contributions presented here include new theoretical developments as well as successful applications of variable structure controllers primarily in the field of power electronics, electric drives and motion steering systems. They enrich the current state of the art, and motivate and encourage new ideas and solutions in the sliding mode control area

분산된 로터로 구동되는 비행 스켈레톤 시스템의 디자인 상태추정 및 제어

학위논문(박사)--서울대학교 대학원 :공과대학 기계항공공학부,2020. 2. 이동준.In this thesis, we present key theoretical components for realizing flying aerial skeleton system called LASDRA (large-size aerial skeleton with distributed rotor actuation). Aerial skeletons are articulated aerial robots actuated by distributed rotors including both ground connected type and flying type. These systems have recently attracted interest and are being actively researched in several research groups, with the expectation of applying those for aerial manipulation in distant/narrow places, or for the performance with entertaining purpose such as drone shows. Among the aerial skeleton systems, LASDRA system, proposed by our group has some significant advantages over the other skeleton systems that it is capable of free SE(3) motion by omni-directional wrench generation of each link, and also the system can be operated with wide range of configuration because of the 3DOF (degrees of freedom) inter-link rotation enabled by cable connection among the link modules. To realize this LASDRA system, following three components are crucial: 1) a link module that can produce omni-directional force and torque and enough feasible wrench space; 2) pose and posture estimation algorithm for an articulated system with high degrees of freedom; and 3) a motion generation framework that can provide seemingly natural motion while being able to generate desired motion (e.g., linear and angular velocity) for the entire body. The main contributions of this thesis is theoretically developing these three components, and verifying these through outdoor flight experiment with a real LASDRA system. First of all, a link module for the LASDRA system is designed with proposed constrained optimization problem, maximizing the guaranteed feasible force and torque for any direction while also incorporating some constraints (e.g., avoiding inter-rotor air-flow interference) to directly obtain feasible solution. Also, an issue of ESC-induced (electronic speed control) singularity is first introduced in the literature which is inevitably caused by bi-directional thrust generation with sensorless actuators, and handled with a novel control allocation called selective mapping. Then for the state estimation of the entire LASDRA system, constrained Kalman filter based estimation algorithm is proposed that can provide estimation result satisfying kinematic constraint of the system, also along with a semi-distributed version of the algorithm to endow with system scalability. Lastly, CPG-based motion generation framework is presented that can generate natural biomimetic motion, and by exploiting the inverse CPG model obtained with machine learning method, it becomes possible to generate certain desired motion while still making CPG generated natural motion.본 논문에서는 비행 스켈레톤 시스템 LASDRA (large-size aerial skeleton with distributed rotor actuation) 의 구현을 위해 요구되는 핵심 기법들을 제안하며, 이를 실제 LASDRA 시스템의 실외 비행을 통해 검증한다. 제안된 기법은 1) 전방향으로 힘과 토크를 낼 수 있고 충분한 가용 렌치공간을 가진 링크 모듈, 2) 높은 자유도의 다관절구조 시스템을 위한 위치 및 자세 추정 알고리즘, 3) 자연스러운 움직임을 내는 동시에 전체 시스템이 속도, 각속도 등 원하는 움직임을 내도록 할 수 있는 모션 생성 프레임워크로 구성된다. 본 논문에서는 우선 링크 모듈의 디자인을 위해 전방향으로 보장되는 힘과 토크의 크기를 최대화하는 구속 최적화를 사용하고, 실제 적용가능한 해를 얻기 위해 몇가지 구속조건(로터 간 공기 흐름 간섭의 회피 등)을 고려한다. 또한 센서가 없는 액츄에이터로 양방향 추력을 내는 것에서 야기되는 ESC 유발 특이점 (ESC-induced singularity) 이라는 문제를 처음으로 소개하고, 이를 해결하기 위해 선택적 맵핑 (selective mapping) 이라는 기법을 제시한다. 전체 LASDRA 시스템의 상태추정을 위해 시스템의 기구학적 구속조건을 만족하는 결과를 얻을 수 있도록 구속 칼만 필터 기반의 상태추정 기법을 제시하고, 시스템 확장성을 고려하여 반 분산 (semi-distributed) 개념의 알고리즘을 함께 제시한다. 마지막으로 본 논문에서는 자연스러운 움직임의 생성을 위하여 CPG 기반의 모션 생성 프레임워크를 제안하며, 기계 학습 방법을 통해 CPG 역연산 모델을 얻음으로써 전체 시스템이 원하는 움직임을 낼 수 있도록 한다.1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation and Background 1 1.2 Research Problems and Approach 3 1.3 Preview of Contributions 5 2 Omni-Directional Aerial Robot 7 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 Mechanical Design 12 2.2.1 Design Description 12 2.2.2 Wrench-Maximizing Design Optimization 13 2.3 System Modeling and Control Design 20 2.3.1 System Modeling 20 2.3.2 Pose Trajectory Tracking Control 22 2.3.3 Hybrid Pose/Wrench Control 22 2.3.4 PSPM-Based Teleoperation 24 2.4 Control Allocation with Selective Mapping 27 2.4.1 Infinity-Norm Minimization 27 2.4.2 ESC-Induced Singularity and Selective Mapping 29 2.5 Experiment 38 2.5.1 System Setup 38 2.5.2 Experiment Results 41 2.6 Conclusion 49 3 Pose and Posture Estimation of an Aerial Skeleton System 51 3.1 Introduction 51 3.2 Preliminary 53 3.3 Pose and Posture Estimation 55 3.3.1 Estimation Algorithm via SCKF 55 3.3.2 Semi-Distributed Version of Algorithm 59 3.4 Simulation 62 3.5 Experiment 65 3.5.1 System Setup 65 3.5.2 Experiment of SCKF-Based Estimation Algorithm 66 3.6 Conclusion 69 4 CPG-Based Motion Generation 71 4.1 Introduction 71 4.2 Description of Entire Framework 75 4.2.1 LASDRA System 75 4.2.2 Snake-Like Robot & Pivotboard 77 4.3 CPG Model 79 4.3.1 LASDRA System 79 4.3.2 Snake-Like Robot 80 4.3.3 Pivotboard 83 4.4 Target Pose Calculation with Expected Physics 84 4.5 Inverse Model Learning 86 4.5.1 LASDRA System 86 4.5.2 Snake-Like Robot 89 4.5.3 Pivotboard 90 4.6 CPG Parameter Adaptation 93 4.7 Simulation 94 4.7.1 LASDRA System 94 4.7.2 Snake-Like Robot & Pivotboard 97 4.8 Conclusion 101 5 Outdoor Flight Experiment of the F-LASDRA System 103 5.1 System Setup 103 5.2 Experiment Results 104 6 Conclusion 111 6.1 Summary 111 6.2 Future Works 112Docto

Review. Technologies for robot grippers in pick and place operations for fresh fruits and vegetables

[EN] Robotics has been introduced in industry to replace humans in arduous and repetitive tasks, to reduce labour costs and to ensure consistent quality control of the process. Nowadays robots are cheaper, can work in hostile and dirty environments and they are able to manipulate products at high speed. High speed and reliability and low robot gripper costs are necessary for a profitable pick and place (P&P) process. However, current grippers are not able to handle these products properly because they have uneven shapes, are flexible and irregular, have different textures and are very sensitive to being damaged. This review brings together the requirements and phases used in the process of manipulation, summarises and analyses of the existing, potential and emerging techniques and their possibilities for the manipulation of fresh horticultural products from a detailed study of their characteristics. It considers the difficulties and the lack of engineers to conceive of and implement solutions. Contact grippers with underactuated mechanism and suction cups could be a promising approach for the manipulation of fresh fruit and vegetables. Ongoing study is still necessary on the characteristics and handling requirements of fresh fruit and vegetables in order to design grippers which are suitable for correct manipulation, at high speed, in profitable P&P processes for industrial applications.This work has been partially funded by research project with reference DPI2010-20286 financed by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion.Blanes Campos, C.; Mellado Arteche, M.; Ortiz Sánchez, MC.; Valera Fernández, Á. (2011). Review. Technologies for robot grippers in pick and place operations for fresh fruits and vegetables. SPANISH JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH. 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On Probabilistic Strategies for Robot Tasks

Robots must act purposefully and successfully in an uncertain world. Sensory information is inaccurate or noisy, actions may have a range of effects, and the robot's environment is only partially and imprecisely modeled. This thesis introduces active randomization by a robot, both in selecting actions to execute and in focusing on sensory information to interpret, as a basic tool for overcoming uncertainty. An example of randomization is given by the strategy of shaking a bin containing a part in order to orient the part in a desired stable state with some high probability. Another example consists of first using reliable sensory information to bring two parts close together, then relying on short random motions to actually mate the two parts, once the part motions lie below the available sensing resolution. Further examples include tapping parts that are tightly wedged, twirling gears before trying to mesh them, and vibrating parts to facilitate a mating operation

Development of Hybrid Air-Water Rotor Transition Thrust Prediction and Control

Hybrid vehicles are able to function in some combination of aerial, underwater, and terrestrial environments, which greatly expands the scope of missions a vehicle can perform. Hybrid aerial-water (HAW) vehicles are a promising subcategory that are designed to operate in two vastly different fluid mediums. Multirotor HAW vehicles configurations have advantages in maneuverability, but pose a challenge in the water entry or water exit transitions. The interaction of a powered rotor with the air-water interface and its performance in a mixed air-water medium are poorly understood. Previous HAW vehicle strategies avoid a powered rotor with additional propulsion and buoyancy systems, constraining the design space. A custom test stand was constructed to better understand rotor performance during the air-water transition. By recording powered rotor performance during controlled water entries and exits in a large tank, several novel observations were made. Previously unrecorded phenomenon such as the gradual height and RPM dependent transition and the underwater ceiling effect are determined. These observations inform the development of the Transition Index TI, a novel metric that indicates the transition state of the rotor, without the need for specialized sensors or computationally intensive modeling. TI is applied to experimental data to make further observations, and is also used in a novel thrust prediction formulation. The first known low-order prediction of thrust through the transition is validated against experimental data, and allows for the development of a TI based controller. A preliminary controller implementation shows promising results in maintaining constant thrust through the air-water transition. Finally, a HAW vehicle to apply this controller is built. Careful consideration to the waterproofing and motor choice is shown and preliminary flight tests are demonstrated. Future expansion on the application of the novel TI and thrust prediction has great potential to advance the capabilities of hybrid aerial-water vehicles